June 24, 2022

The Transition to Two Americas Is Nearly Complete
Whichever one you live in, it's worse than the one you lived in yesterday

Late Morning Update:

President Biden will speak about the Supreme Court's Barefoot & Pregnant decision, scheduled for 12:30 pm ET.

Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today's decision is certain: the curtailment of women's rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens.... With sorrow -- for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection -- we dissent. -- Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor & Elena Kagan, joint dissent

Robert Barnes, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday overturned the fundamental right to abortion established nearly 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade, a stunning reversal that leaves states free to drastically reduce or even outlaw a procedure that abortion rights groups said is key to women's equality and independence.... The vote was 6 to 3 to uphold a restrictive Mississippi law. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., though, criticized his conservative colleagues for taking the additional step of overturn Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which had reaffirmed the right to abortion.... In a separate opinion, [Clarence] Thomas expressed his support for revisiting other Supreme Court rulings that he and other conservatives believe should be left to individual states. For example, he wrote that the court should move forward with revisiting the right to contraception and the right for same-sex couples to marry.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) celebrated the Supreme Court ruing as 'courageous and correct.' 'This is [a] historic victory for the Constitution and for the most vulnerable in our society,' McConnell said in a statement Friday." This is a liveblog.

The decision, concurring opinions & dissent are here, via the Supremes' Website.

~~~~~~~~~~~

** Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal investigators descended on the home of Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, on Wednesday in connection with the department's sprawling inquiry into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the matter.... Mr. Clark was central to ... Donald J. Trump's unsuccessful effort in late 2020 to strong-arm the nation's top prosecutors into supporting his claims of election fraud. [MB: Not coincidentally!] "The law enforcement action ... came just one day before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was poised to hold a hearing examining Mr. Trump's efforts to pressure the Justice Department after his election defeat. The hearing was expected to explore Mr. Clark's role in helping Mr. Trump bend the department to his will...." CNN's report, by Evan Perez, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: CNN reported on-air that an ally of Clark's complained that the officials showed up at Clark's house in the pre-dawn & sent Mr. Clark out onto the street in his pajamas. Oh, what must the neighbors have thought? Such a nice man. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Not "pre-dawn." According to the NYT story, which has been updated, "Mr. Clark told Tucker Carlson of Fox News on Thursday that he had been woken by agents banging on his door shortly before 7 a.m. on Wednesday." But the pj's part was right: "One of Mr. Clark's associates described the striking scene early Wednesday morning when a dozen federal law-enforcement officials raided the house, seized Mr. Clark's electronic devices and put him out on the street in his pajamas." Yeah, well, anyone who would go on TuKKKer's show is sure to be a shady character, and all precautions are necessary to prevent him from destroying evidence. ~~~

     ~~~ Trump's Bad Day. Neal Katyal, BTW, said on MSNBC the raid was the worst news Trump got Thursday. The fact that the feds went in with a judge's order to collect electronic info shows they were looking for evidence of a conspiracy, that Clark was a target, and the person DOJ suspects him of conspiring with is Donald Trump. In addition, Katyal thinks it's like that, because of the importance of the raid, Merrick Garland signed off on it.

Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave, When First We Practice to Deceive

Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen. -- Donald Trump, to Acting AG Jeffrey Rosen & his deputy Richard Donoghue, January 3 ~~~

~~~ ** Luke Broadwater & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol painted a vivid picture on Thursday of how ... Donald J. Trump directed a wide-ranging bid to strong-arm the Justice Department into overturning the 2020 election, the most brazen attempt by a sitting president since Watergate to manipulate the nation's law enforcement apparatus to keep himself in power. In a stunning display of evidence, including testimony from top officials who resisted the former president's efforts, the committee laid out how Mr. Trump tried repeatedly to use the Justice Department to interfere in the election. In near-daily conversations, he badgered its leaders to act on unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, including wild internet hoaxes, accusing them of failing to do their jobs. He explored naming a conspiracy theorist [Sidney Powell] who was circulating outlandish stories of voting irregularities to serve as a special counsel to look into possible election misdeeds.... ~~~

~~~"The panel also presented evidence that after the Jan. 6 attack, at least six Republican members of the House who played leading roles in Mr. Trump's efforts to use Congress to overturn the election sought pardons for themselves and for all the Republicans who voted to reject electoral votes for Mr. Biden. The list, according to the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, included Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.Louie Gohmert of Texas and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia." ~~~

     ~~~ A Minor Character Emerges as New Evidence of Trump's Tangled Web. Marie: Here was a tidbit that came near the end of the hearing. From the NYT report: "The hearing also made clear that Mr. Trump had a second secret ally inside the department, a former lawyer in the White House budget office named Ken Klukowski. After the election, Mr. Klukowski worked with John Eastman, a lawyer who helped create 'alternate' slates of electors in swing states that would falsely say Mr. Trump had won." Klukowski seems to have been airlifted into DoJ in December 2020, where he miraculously landed in Jeff Clark's office. It's not yet clear (to the public, anyway) who engineered this felicitous bit of last-minute staffing, but as MSNBC hosts pointed out in their recap of Thursday's hearing, Klukowski provides a tantalizing link between Eastman, who designed & instigated the fake electors plot, and Clark, who proposed to facilitate carrying it out. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. In listing five takeaways from the hearing, Aaron Blake of the Washington Post includes this one: "... the committee indicated for apparently the first time that there might have been coordination in the plotting between Trump's legal team and certain members of the Justice Department. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) shared a Dec. 28 email from longtime Ohio Republican Party politician Ken Blackwell recommending a briefing for Vice President Mike Pence from [John] Eastman and former Trump aide Kenneth Klukowski, who had recently joined the Justice Department.... Klukowski has already been implicated in helping draft [Jeff] Clark's draft letter seeking to have the Justice Department legitimize Trump's false voter-fraud claims.... 'This email suggests that Mr. Klukowski was simultaneously working with Jeffrey Clark to draft the proposed letter to Georgia officials to overturn their certified election and working with Dr. Eastman to help pressure the vice president to overturn the election,' Cheney said."

~~~ Marie: Also from the NYT report: "During a heated showdown in the Oval Office, only the threat of a mass resignation at the department persuaded Mr. Trump to back down." Can't recall which MSNBC panelist raised the matter, but they agreed that it was not so much the threat of the DoJ's being decapitated that persuaded Trump, but an admonition from Steve Engel, one of the DoJ honchos who said he would quit, that the headline would not be the one Trump wanted: instead of emphasizing the DoJ (i.e., Clark's) letter that the department had detected major voter fraud, it would be the mass resignation. Pat Cipollone, the White House Counsel, concurred, telling Trump in the January 3 meeting with the DoJ officials that his plan would amount to a "murder-suicide."

So let's think here, what would a special counsel do? With only days to go until election certification, it wasn't to investigate anything. An investigation, led by a special counsel, would just create an illusion of legitimacy and provide fake cover for those who would want to object, including those who stormed the Capitol on January 6. -- Adam Kinzinger, during Thursday's hearing ~~~

~~~ Michael Schmidt of the New York Times with his five takeaways from Thursday's hearing: "It was the most blatant attempt to use the Justice Department for political ends at least since Watergate.... The heart of the scheme was a draft letter to officials in Georgia.... The letter falsely asserted that the department had evidence of election fraud.... The letter recommended that the state call its legislature into session to study allegations of election fraud and consider naming an alternate slate of electors pledged to Mr. Trump.... Trump would not give up on his claims of fraud.... Trump considered naming a loyalist lawyer [Sidney Powell] as a special counsel.... Members of Congress sought pardons -- and Trump considered the requests.... Among those looking for a pardon was Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida. Mr. Gaetz was seeking a blanket pardon that would have essentially covered any crime he had committed in his entire life. Although it was not known publicly at the time, Mr. Gaetz was under Justice Department investigation for paying a 17-year-old girl for sex." ~~~

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "... House lawmakers on Thursday identified five Republican lawmakers who allegedly sought pardons -- suggesting not just their own fear of criminal exposure, but a belief that the outgoing president would preemptively protect them from the investigations that followed the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress.... The allegations of pardon-hunting came from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and from John McEntee, a close aide to Trump. Such testimony strikes at one of the most fraught issues to emerge out of the Jan. 6 attack -- the suspicion rife in many quarters of Congress that some of its members may have participated in criminal conspiracies to thwart the valid results of a presidential election.... [Scott] Perry [Pa.] repeated his denials that he ever sought a pardon for himself or other members of Congress, and denied speaking to Hutchinson about a pardon."

Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "Of all the fantastical false claims of fraud and vote manipulation in the 2020 presidential election, 'Italygate' was one of the most extreme. And Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) was at the heart of bringing it to Donald Trump's attention. This particular allegation of fraud centered around ... an 'absurd' claim that an Italian defense contractor had conspired with senior CIA officials to use military satellites to flip votes from Trump to Joe Biden.... That wasn't Perry's only involvement in encouraging Trump to get the vote overturned. The committee obtained records from the National Archives showing that Perry was among the Republican members of Congress who met with the president in the Oval Office on Dec. 21, 2020. The committee also displayed White House logs showing that Perry returned to the White House the next day -- and 'this time, he brought a Justice Department official named Jeffrey Clark.' It was the first known meeting between Clark and Trump -- and it probably set off the events that led to [the] dramatic showdown between the president and senior Justice Department leaders.... Those involved with the insurrection have repeatedly pointed to Perry as the chief conduit for the House GOP Conference to the White House in Trump's quest to overturn his defeat."

The Washington Post's live updates of matters related to the January 6 committee hearing is here. The New York Times' live updates are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: Thursday's hearing was in some ways the most dramatic yet. Although the witnesses tended to speak in the measured tones of seasoned lawyers, the events they described, sometimes in vivid detail, could hardly have been more dramatic. Tense, last minute meetings where the outcomes were both unknown & potentially catastrophic, middle-of-the-night phone calls, a January 6 evening race to the Capitol to check for IEDs & insurgents hiding in closets. And of course the usual Trump buffoonery. You can watch it at this Committee Webpage.

Joan Greve of the Guardian: "Across the committee's five hearings this month, investigators have presented a meticulous account of Trump's exhaustive efforts to cling to power after losing the election to Joe Biden. The panel has shown how Trump and his allies explored every possible avenue -- from pressuring the vice-president, Mike Pence, to leaning on state election officials and justice department leaders -- to promote lies about widespread election fraud.... 'These efforts were not some minor or ad hoc enterprise concocted overnight. Each required planning and coordination. Some required significant funding,' [committee vice-chair Liz] Cheney said. 'All of them were overseen by President Trump, and much more information will be presented soon regarding the president's statements and actions on January 6.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Another thing the hearings make clear is that the "Big Lie" is based on many smaller lies, far-out conspiracy theories, fake electors and fraudulent legal theories. The "foundation" of Trump's entire scheme to overturn the election results was make-believe. There was no there there. A no-legged stool. Bupkis. I think even some Trumpbots who might accidentally tune in or hear something about the proceedings could figure that out.

The Stupidest Senator Is a Liar, Too. Alexander Shur of the Wisconsin State Journal: "A former Dane County [Madison, Wisconsin] judge [Jim Troupis] who legally represented ... Donald Trump coordinated with U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to pass documents falsely stating Trump won Wisconsin to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, newly revealed text messages show.... 'We need to get a document on the Wisconsin electors to you for the VP immediately,' ... Troupis told Johnson at 11:36 a.m. Jan. 6, 2021, according to texts provided to conservative media outlet Just the News.... Screenshots of the text messages show, Johnson connected his chief of staff, Sean Riley, with Troupis in a text chain. Riley was newly serving in Johnson's office and was previously a Trump White House adviser.... Johnson ... told conservative radio host Vicki McKenna on Thursday that the documents in question came to him from the office of U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa. But a Kelly spokesperson told a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Johnson's comments were 'patently false.' 'Mr. Kelly has not spoken to Sen. Johnson for the better part of a decade, and he has no knowledge of the claims Mr. Johnson is making related to the 2020 election,' the statement said.... [Just the News] ... reported that Kelly was in communication with Troupis, who then connected with Johnson.... Johnson also told McKenna he didn't know what the documents contained despite Troupis ... telling Johnson he needed to pass Pence a 'document on the Wisconsin electors.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Shur did some digging to piece together this story & debunk Johnson's porkies. More evidence we do need local reporting.

Tamar Hallerman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia “Gov. Brian Kemp will deliver testimony next month to Fulton County prosecutors investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 elections.... But unlike the parade of witnesses who have appeared at the Fulton courthouse to answer questions in front of a special grand jury, the Republican will instead deliver a 'sworn recorded statement,' according to a letter from the Fulton County District Attorney's office dated Wednesday and obtained by the AJC on Thursday.... The 23-member special grand jury also subpoenaed a bevy of evidence from Kemp's office...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Everything I know about grand juries I learned watching reruns of Law & Order episodes. One thing I learned is that the grand jurors can question witnesses (and prosecutors), at least in New York. I can't see where there's any provision in the agreement between Kemp & the D.A. for the jurors to ask Kemp questions.

Jordan Fischer of WUSA Washington, D.C.: "A Navy petty officer who allegedly told an undercover FBI employee he was studying the Olympic Park Bomber was arrested Wednesday on charges of entering the U.S. Capitol Building during the Jan. 6 riot. Hatchet Speed was taken into custody in McLean, Virginia, yesterday on four misdemeanor counts. According to court documents unsealed Thursday, Speed is a petty officer first class in the U.S. Naval Reserves assigned to the Naval Warfare Space Field Activity at the National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, Virginia. Speed is also employed as a software developer for a Vienna, Virginia, company that conducts advanced analytics for the Department of Defense. In March, according to an affidavit, Speed told an undercover FBI employee he'd traveled to the Capitol on Jan. 6 with friends who are members of the Proud Boys. Speed said going to the Capitol was 'always the plan.'... In an affidavit, an FBI special agent said financial records showed Speed had purchased at least 12 firearms between Feb. 11, 2021, and May 26, 2021.... The undercover employee said Speed also repeatedly expressed anti-Semitic beliefs and praised Adolf Hitler, describing him as 'one of the best people that's ever been on this Earth.'" Speed allegedly was studying jihadists to learn the more effect ways to "wipe out Jews."

Erica Green of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Thursday proposed new rules governing how schools must respond to sex discrimination, rolling back major parts of a Trump administration policy that narrowed the scope of campus sexual misconduct investigations and cementing the rights of transgender students into law. The proposal would overhaul expansive rules finalized under former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, which for the first time codified how universities, colleges and K-12 schools investigate sexual assault and harassment on campus. It would also broaden the roster of who is protected under Title IX, the federal law signed 50 years ago Thursday that bars discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal funds."

CBS News: "The Biden administration is canceling the federal student debt of borrowers who say their schools defrauded them, settling a class action lawsuit originally filed against the Trump administration.... The settlement says that the administration will discharge these borrowers' student loan debts and refund any relevant payments made to the Education Department to pay off these debts -- including debt that was fully paid off. Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced students who attended the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges chain would automatically have their federal student loans canceled, in an effort to bring closure to one of the most notorious cases of fraud in American higher education."

Matt Richtel & Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday ordered Juul to stop selling e-cigarettes on the U.S. market, a profoundly damaging blow to a once-popular company whose brand was blamed for the teenage vaping crisis. The order affects all of Juul's products on the U.S. market, the overwhelming source of the company's sales. Juul's sleek vaping cartridges and sweet-flavored pods helped usher in an era of alternative nicotine products among adults as well, and invited intense scrutiny from antismoking groups and regulators who feared they would do more harm to young people than good to former smokers." (Also linked yesterday.) A Guardian report is here.

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The Senate on Thursday passed legislation aimed at stanching acts of mass gun violence, with 15 Republicans joining Democrats to advance a bill combining modest new firearms restrictions with $15 billion in mental health and school security funding. The 65-to-33 vote represented an unlikely breakthrough on the emotional and polarizing question of U.S. gun laws, which have gone largely unchanged for more than 25 years, even as the nation has been repeatedly scarred by mass shootings whose names have become etched in history -- from Columbine and Virginia Tech to Sandy Hook and Parkland. But the May 24 killing of 19 students and two teachers inside a Uvalde, Tex., elementary school prompted renewed action, compelling a small group of senators to negotiate a narrow, bipartisan package focused on keeping guns away from dangerous potential killers while also bulking up the nation's mental-health-care capacity with billions of dollars in new funding.... The legislation moves to the House, where it is expected to pass Friday." An NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Mitch McConnell was among the Republicans who voted for the bill, and he admitted he did so for his usual principled reason: "In subsequent remarks with reporters, [McConnell] ... [said] he hoped the GOP support for the deal 'will be viewed favorably by voters in the suburbs that we need to regain in order to hopefully be a majority next year.'"

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday said Americans generally have a right to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense and that a New York law requiring special need for such a permit is too restrictive. The vote was 6 to 3, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing for the majority and the court's three liberals in dissent.... In dissent, Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote: 'Many States have tried to address some of the dangers of gun violence ... by passing laws that limit, in various ways, who may purchase, carry, or use firearms of different kinds. The Court today severely burdens States' efforts to do so.' Enacted more than a century ago, New York's law requires those who want to carry a concealed weapon for self-defense to show a specific need for doing so. Its 'proper cause' law is similar to regulations in California, New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii and Massachusetts." MB: As contributor Ken W. once asked, "Uh, what about that 'well-regulated militia' thing?" (Paraphrase. I expect he said it better.) (Also linked yesterday.) The ScotusBlog report, by Amy Howe, is here. ~~~

~~~ Sore Winner. "Alito Lashes Out at Liberals." Ariane de Vogue of CNN: "In a sparse but relentlessly caustic concurring opinion [on the New York conceal-carry case], the conservative [Samuel] Alito criticized his liberal colleagues for their dissent, blasting them for attempting to 'obscure' the specific question the court had decided, and for referencing the recent mass shootings that have shocked the nation. The fact that Alito, who joined Thomas' opinion in full, chose to also strike out alone against the dissenters highlights the current tension on the court.... He said the 'real thrust of the dissent' was that 'guns are bad.'... [Justice Stephen] Breyer" ... struck back.... 'Justice Alito asks why I have begun my opinion by reviewing some of the dangers and challenges posed by gun violence,' he said. Breyer said he did so because the 'question of firearm regulation presents a complex problem -- one that should be solved by legislatures and not courts.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Ed Pilkington & Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "The governor of New York [Kathy Hochul], a Democrat, said the ruling was 'not just reckless, it's reprehensible'. Pointing to recent mass shootings in New York and Texas, a leading progressive group called the ruling 'shameful and outrageous'. Joe Biden said: 'This ruling contradicts both common sense and the constitution and should deeply trouble us all'."

~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Two of the lawyers responsible for a major victory for gun rights forces at the Supreme Court on Thursday are parting with their prominent law firm after it announced it would no longer handle Second Amendment litigation. Former Solicitor General Paul Clement and Erin Murphy, a regular Supreme Court litigator, said they were launching their own firm after Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis decided to step back from gun-related litigation."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that police officers may not be sued under a federal civil rights law for failing to administer the familiar warning required by the court's 1966 decision in Miranda v. Arizona. The vote was 6 to 3, with the justices dividing along ideological lines. In a second case, the court ruled that a death row inmate in Georgia could invoke the same civil rights law in seeking to be executed by firing squad rather than lethal injection. The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh joining the court's three liberal members to form a majority."

Jeffrey Jones of Gallup: "With the U.S. Supreme Court expected to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision before the end of its 2021-2022 term, Americans' confidence in the court has dropped sharply over the past year and reached a new low in Gallup's nearly 50-year trend. Twenty-five percent of U.S. adults say they have 'a great deal' or 'quite a lot' of confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court, down from 36% a year ago and five percentage points lower than the previous low recorded in 2014."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Vimal Patel of the New York Times: "Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has been charged with alcohol-related offenses in connection with a car crash in Napa County, Calif., in May, the Napa County District Attorney's Office said Thursday. The charges include driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, and driving with a 0.08 percent blood alcohol level or higher and causing injury, prosecutors said. A blood sample taken from Mr. Pelosi more than two hours after the crash had a .082 percent blood alcohol content, the office said." A CBS News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's a related NYT story, dated June 22/23, which I purposely didn't link timely, about how the Pelosis are so rich & connected.

Florida. Patricia Mazzei & Mike Baker of the New York Times: "One year since the catastrophe at Champlain Towers [in Surfside, Florida], with the cause of the collapse still under federal investigation, new documents, interviews and deposition records have shed fresh light on a critical seven-minute period between the roaring initial failure of a pool deck and the eventual cascading collapse of a portion of the building, leaving 98 people dead in one of the deadliest structural failures in U.S. history. The security guard in the lobby of Champlain Towers hurriedly dialed 911 to report the initial failure. An alarm may have sounded at that point in a limited part of the building, though it was clearly inaudible to many of those who still slept. The building also had a sophisticated audio warning system designed to broadcast an alert into the bedrooms of every unit. But it was never triggered, newly available deposition testimony and interviews show, because the security guard had never been trained about the system and the single button needed to activate it."

Missouri Senate Race. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Republicans are launching a well-funded outside group to stop disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens from winning their upcoming Missouri Senate primary. The group, called Show Me Values, is set to start running TV advertisements targeting Greitens, beginning Friday. The outfit is set to air more than $1-million worth of commercials through the end of June, and ... it planned to remain involved in the race up until the Aug. 2 primary.... Polls have consistently shown Greitens ahead his primary rivals.... The super PAC is overseen by veteran Republican strategist Johnny DeStefano, a Kansas City native and former top official in ... Donald Trump's White House." Greitens' campaign manager Dylan Johnson called the super-PAC principals -- who are Republicans -- "swamp creatures & grifters."

Wyoming House Race. Kipp Jones of Mediaite: "Rep. Liz Cheney's (R-WY) campaign is urging Wyoming Democrats to register as Republicans to save her from potential defeat in her August primary. The vice chair of the House Jan. 6 select committee is trailing Trump-backed primary opponent Harriet Hageman in polling.... New York Times reporter Reid J. Epstein wrote Thursday Cheney is 'is urging Democrats in her home state to switch parties to support her in the Aug. 16 primary.' Epstein added, 'In the last week, Wyoming Democrats have received mail from Ms. Cheney's campaign with specific instructions on how to change their party affiliation to vote for her. Ms. Cheney's campaign website now has a link to a form for changing parties....'"

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukraine will withdraw its troops defending Severodonetsk, the embattled eastern city that is the locus of Russia's war effort, regional governor Serhiy Haidai said early Friday. Russia had been shelling the city 'almost every day for four months,' Haidai said.... The setbacks in eastern Ukraine are in contrast to Kyiv's recent wins off the battlefield. President Volodymyr Zelensky celebrated 'victory' Thursday after the European Union decided to grant Ukraine membership candidate status. The move is only a first step in a lengthy process, but E.U. accession is a major Ukrainian goal.... Kyiv also secured an additional $450 million in security aid from Washington, including patrol boats and more multi-launch rocket launchers.... U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Berlin, where he will join talks on food security -- an issue that has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and Russia's blockade of key ports." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's report for Friday is here. The New York Times' live updates are here.

Enemies of State Sovereignty & Democracy. Clifford Krauss, et al., of the New York Times: "As Russia tries to break the stranglehold of sanctions, China and India are emerging as Moscow's pivotal financiers by purchasing large amounts of Russian crude, putting themselves in the middle of the messy war with Ukraine and a geopolitical standoff with the West.... Buying cheap oil from Russia offers economic and political advantages. China can diversify its oil supplies for national security reasons, while India can make billions exporting refined products like gasoline and diesel. But undercutting European and American efforts to isolate the Kremlin risks serious diplomatic fallout that neither country wants."

Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "The US embassy in Russia this week was pressing the Kremlin to reveal the whereabouts of two Alabama men captured in Ukraine while defending the country from Russian invaders, according to the mother of one of the taken Americans."

U.K. Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Britain's governing Conservative Party lost two strategically important parliamentary seats on Friday, dealing a harsh blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and raising fresh doubts about his scandal-scarred leadership. Voters in Tiverton and Honiton, a rural stretch of southwest England that is the party's heartland, and in the faded northern industrial city of Wakefield evicted the Conservative Party from seats that had come open after lawmakers were brought down by scandals of their own. In Wakefield, the Labour Party's victory was widely expected, and it ran up a comfortable margin over the Conservatives. In the south, which had been viewed as a tossup, the Liberal Democratic Party scored a stunning upset, overcoming a huge Conservative majority in the last election to win the seat by a solid margin.... In an immediate sign of the political fallout, the chairman of the Conservative Party, Oliver Dowden, resigned on Friday morning."

Vatican. Guardian: "Pope Francis has ordered the online publication of 170 volumes of files relating to Jewish people from the recently opened Pope Pius XII archives, amid renewed debate about the legacy of the second world war-era pope. The archive of 2,700 cases 'gathers the requests for help sent to Pope Pius XII by Jewish people ... after the beginning of Nazi and fascist persecution', said the Vatican's secretary for relations with states, Paul Richard Gallagher, in a statement. Although the documents have been available for consultation by scholars since March 2020, Pope Francis requested they be accessible to everyone, said the statement. Putting the archive online 'will allow the descendants of those who asked for help to find traces of their loved ones from any part of the world', it said."

June 23, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

** Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal investigators descended on the home of Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, on Wednesday in connection with the department's sprawling inquiry into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the matter.... Mr. Clark was central to ... Donald J. Trump's unsuccessful effort in late 2020 to strong-arm the nation's top prosecutors into supporting his claims of election fraud. [MB: Not coincidentally,] "The law enforcement action ... came just one day before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was poised to hold a hearing examining Mr. Trump's efforts to pressure the Justice Department after his election defeat. The hearing was expected to explore Mr. Clark's role in helping Mr. Trump bend the department to his will...." CNN's report, by Evan Perez, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: CNN reported on-air that an ally of Clark's complained that the officials showed up at Clark's house in the pre-dawn & sent Mr. Clark out onto the street in his pajamas. Oh, what must the neighbors have thought? ~~~

     ~~~ Trump's Bad Day. Neal Katyal, BTW, said on MSNBC the raid was the worst news Trump got Thursday. The fact that the feds went in with a judge's order to collect electronic info shows they were looking for evidence of a conspiracy, that Clark was a target, and the person DOJ suspects him of conspiring with is Donald Trump. In addition, Katyal thinks it's like that, because of the importance of the raid, Merrick Garland signed off on it.

The Washington Post's live updates of matters related to the January 6 committee hearing is here. Update: the New York Times' live updates are here.

Annie Karni & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Senate on Thursday moved a step closer to approving bipartisan legislation aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people, as a small group of Republicans joined Democrats to break through their party's blockade and bring what would be the first substantial gun safety measure in decades to the brink of passage. Fifteen Republicans, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, joined Democrats in a crucial test vote that paved the way for the Senate to pass the measure as early as Thursday. The 65-34 vote more than cleared the 60-vote threshold needed to break a Republican filibuster, shattering a three-decade-long string of failures on gun-related legislation. One Republican Senator was absent."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday said Americans generally have a right to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense and that a New York law requiring special need for such a permit is too restrictive. The vote was 6 to 3, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing for the majority and the court's three liberals in dissent.... In dissent, Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote: 'Many States have tried to address some of the dangers of gun violence ... by passing laws that limit, in various ways, who may purchase, carry, or use firearms of different kinds. The Court today severely burdens States' efforts to do so.' Enacted more than a century ago, New York's law requires those who want to carry a concealed weapon for self-defense to show a specific need for doing so. Its 'proper cause' law is similar to regulations in California, New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii and Massachusetts." MB: As contributor Ken W. once asked, "Uh, what about the 'well-regulated militia' thing?" (Paraphrase. I expect he said it better.)

Matt Richtel & Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday ordered Juul to stop selling e-cigarettes on the U.S. market, a profoundly damaging blow to a once-popular company whose brand was blamed for the teenage vaping crisis. The order affects all of Juul's products on the U.S. market, the overwhelming source of the company's sales. Juul's sleek vaping cartridges and sweet-flavored pods helped usher in an era of alternative nicotine products among adults as well, and invited intense scrutiny from antismoking groups and regulators who feared they would do more harm to young people than good to former smokers."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Today's January 6 Select Committee hearing is scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm ET. ~~~

~~~ Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Donald Trump pressured top justice department officials to falsely declare that the 2020 election was corrupt and launch investigations into discredited claims of fraud as part of an effort to return him to office, the House January 6 select committee will say on Thursday. The panel investigating the Capitol attack is expected at its fifth hearing to focus on how Trump abused the power of the presidency to twist the justice department into endorsing false election claims -- and potentially how the Republican congressman Scott Perry sought a pardon for his involvement."

Amy Gardner, et al., of the Washington Post: "In the past 24 hours, there has been an uptick in the number of violent threats against lawmakers on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and all lawmakers on the committee are likely to receive a security detail, according to three people involved with the investigation.... Over the weekend, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) revealed a letter addressed to his wife that threatened to execute them and their 5-month-old baby. He warned that the political violence of Jan. 6, 2021 was not an aberration but a consequence of his party's repeated lies.... Committee Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) has been flanked with a security detail since last year, and has been unable to hold large, publicized campaign events, in part due to security concerns, according to aides."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, chose last summer to withdraw all of his nominees to the [January 6 select] committee -- amid a dispute with Speaker Nancy Pelosi over her rejection of his first two choices -- a turning point that left the nine-member investigative committee without a single ally of Mr. Trump. Mostly in private, Republicans loyal to Mr. Trump have complained for months that they have no insight into the inner workings of the committee as it has issued dozens of subpoenas and conducted interviews behind closed doors with hundreds of witnesses. But the public display this month of what the panel has learned -- including damning evidence against Mr. Trump and his allies -- left some Republicans wishing more vocally that Mr. Trump had strong defenders on the panel to try to counter the evidence its investigators dig up." ~~~

~~~ Marianna Sotomayor, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump has said privately for months that [Kevin] McCarthy's decision to pull pro-Trump Republicans from sitting on the Jan. 6 select committee was a mistake, one that has become clearer as Trump watches the hearings that are working to build the case that he should be criminally charged for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election. According to a close adviser..., Trump has made it clear to anyone who will listen that 'there's no one to defend me' on the days before, during or after the hearings. The blame is falling squarely on McCarthy's shoulders, according to some Republican congressional aides and advisers close to the former president."

Manu Raju & Morgan Rimmer of CNN: "Rep. Mo Brooks -- one of the Republican lawmakers facing calls from the January 6 committee to testify about his interactions with ... Donald Trump -- said Wednesday that he is willing to testify but only in public. 'My basic requirement is it be in public so the public can see it -- so they don't get bits and pieces dribbled out,' the Alabama Republican said. He also said he'd testify only about matters related to January 6, 2021, and wants to see copies of any documents beforehand that the panel may ask him about. Even though the House select committee announced subpoenas for Brooks and four other Republicans last month, he had yet to be served with one because he had been campaigning for the GOP Senate nomination in Alabama. Brooks lost in a runoff Tuesday night." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, this is ironic. Trump is complaining that there is no one at the hearing to defend him. Now it appears that Brooks, whom Trump screwed over by withdrawing his endorsement of Brooks' Senate bid, might be the one person who could appear before the committee & defend Trump.

Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Weeks before the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) held a hearing on election fraud in an attempt to legitimize ... Donald Trump's false allegations of voting irregularities. Four days before the attack on the Capitol, Johnson signed a statement with nine other Republican senators that they intended to object to certifying Joe Biden's electors and demand 'an emergency 10-day audit of the election.' This week, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot revealed that Johnson's chief of staff tried to deliver to Vice President Mike Pence a slate of fake electors backing Trump, raising questions about the Wisconsin Republican's role in a deliberate and coordinated plan to block Biden's win and give Trump the presidency. The disclosure also underscores the extent of Johnson's role as one of Congress's most prominent election deniers and Jan. 6 apologists -- spreading conspiracy theories about rigged votes and playing down the severity of the violent assault on the Capitol as mostly 'peaceful,' while floating the idea that it might have been an inside job by the FBI. Johnson, who is up for reelection this year, has been dogged by scandals and controversial statements since aligning himself with Trump."

Benjamin Siegel & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "After Thursday's hearing, the House Jan. 6 select committee will delay its final hearings for several weeks, a spokesperson confirmed to ABC News Wednesday.... Initially, the committee was expected to hold its sixth and seventh hearings by the end of June. But after Tuesday's session, members said they need more time to incorporate new information into their public presentations. Chairman Bennie Thompson said later 'at least two' are planned for next month starting the week of July 11, after the House returns from the Independence Day recess. But the panel has not ruled out adding even more hearings down the road."

I'll Vote for the Criminal Who Sicced Savage Terrorists on My Dying Daughter. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Rusty Bowers, the Arizona Republican House speaker who made national headlines describing his refusal to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election, has said he will vote for Trump again if he runs for president in 2024. 'If he is the nominee, if he was up against [Joe] Biden, I'd vote for him again,' Bowers told the Associated Press. 'Simply because what he did the first time, before Covid, was so good for the country. In my view it was great.'" MB: Definitely some loose screws between those ears.

Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The Justice Department stepped up its criminal investigation of a plan by ... Donald J. Trump and his allies to create slates of so-called fake electors in a bid to keep Mr. Trump in power during the 2020 election, as federal agents delivered grand jury subpoenas on Wednesday to at least four people connected to the plan." Two of those subpoeanaed were associated with the Georgia Republican party, one with New Mexico & Arizona and one with Michigan. "This latest round of activity ... comes less than a month after an earlier round of grand jury subpoenas revealed that prosecutors were seeking information on any role that a group of pro-Trump lawyers might have played in the fake elector effort." The Hill's report is here.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Wednesday postponed the trial of five members of the extremist group Proud Boys after several defendants and prosecutors warned that the planned release of a public report and witness transcripts from the high-profile House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack could upend preparations. U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly of Washington, D.C., said at a hearing he 'reluctantly' reached the decision to delay the scheduled Aug. 8 trial of former Proud Boys chairman Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio and four others on seditious conspiracy and other charges, but acknowledged strong concerns from prosecutors and defense lawyers that the House Select Committee investigating the breach may divulge key evidence that they have not seen."

Rachel Weiner & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to probe possible financial relationships between members of the Oath Keepers accused of trying to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president and a nonprofit entity run by former Donald Trump attorney Sidney Powell that spread false election claims.... The unusual request follows media reports that Powell's nonprofit organization, Defending the Republic, has used some of the millions of dollars it has raised through spreading conspiracy theories about the 2020 election to pay legal fees for Oath Keepers members facing trial.... U.S. prosecutors asked the trial judge to ensure, in private if necessary, that counsel is complying with legal ethics that bar outside funding for legal defense unless the client gives informed consent.... Prosecutors expressed concern that Defending the Republic was discouraging plea deals...."

The 2024 Plot. Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, one of the nation's top political donors, gathered more than a dozen billionaires or their representatives over Zoom Friday to sound an alarm about the coming elections. 'MAGA leaders intend to use 2022 midterm wins to install Trump in 2024 regardless of the vote,' read a slide of the PowerPoint Hoffman presented to the group, which was obtained by The Washington Post. He was pitching some of the nation's wealthiest people on a doomsday idea that has become a growing obsession among the liberal donor community. Another slide ... laid out a step-by-step hypothetical scenario: Republicans win statewide offices in key battleground states in 2022 and then change state laws in 2023 to give legislatures control over presidential electors. After the next presidential election, they declare votes from urban centers 'tainted' and overrule the popular vote by sending their own slate of electors to Washington.... What's different about this new strategy is that a large portion of the 2022 efforts are actually aimed at 2024 -- attempting to block Republican 2020 election deniers from gaining power and potentially upending valid results in a presidential election year." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A conspiracy theory? Yes. Plausible? Yes.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Lydia DePillis of the New York Times: "With fuel prices near record highs, President Biden on Wednesday urged Congress to temporarily suspend the federal gas tax and give Americans 'just a little bit of breathing room,' even as the proposal faced dim prospects on Capitol Hill. In a speech from the White House, Mr. Biden asked Congress to lift the federal taxes -- about 18 cents per gallon of gasoline and 24 cents per gallon of diesel -- through the end of September, shortly before the fall midterm elections. The president also asked states to suspend their own gas taxes, hoping to alleviate the economic pain that has contributed to his diminishing popularity.... [Energy Secretary Jennifer] Granholm will also speak to oil company executives this week about lowering the price of gas. She did not specify how exactly the administration would ensure that savings from the suspension trickled down to consumers, rather than resulting in a profit for gas companies." This is an update of a story linked yesterday.

Jenny Vrentas of the New York Times: "As the N.F.L. was investigating his team for widespread workplace misconduct, the Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder directed a 'shadow investigation' to interfere with and undermine its findings, a Congressional committee found. At Snyder's behest, his legal team used private investigators to harass and intimidate witnesses, and created a 100-page dossier targeting victims, witnesses and journalists who had shared 'credible public accusations of harassment' against the team. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform released a 29-page memo on Wednesday that detailed the findings of its eight-month inquiry into how the Commanders and the N.F.L. handled claims of rampant sexual harassment of the team's female employees. The report came ahead of a hearing where the league's commissioner, Roger Goodell, was expected to appear and face questioning." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ From a Washington Post liveblog: "Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, announced during a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday on the workplace of Washington's NFL team that the committee intends to issue a subpoena to compel the testimony of Commanders owner Daniel Snyder next week. Maloney's announcement came during a hearing in which NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told the committee that he did not recall the league being informed in 2009 of an allegations of sexual harassment and assault made against Snyder." Goodell testified he did not have the authority to remove Snyder. Snyder was a no-show for the hearing, what with his being on his yacht in France. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado Congressional Race. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: Driven by fears of extremism and worries about what they see as an authoritarianism embodied in [Lauren] Boebert [R], thousands of Democrats in the sprawling third congressional district of Colorado have rushed to shore up her Republican challenger, State Senator Don Coram. [They are registering as independents so they can vote in the GOP primary.] Their aim is not to do what is best for Democrats but to do what they think is best for democracy.... The Colorado crossover voters are part of a broader trend of Democrats intervening to try to beat back the extremes of the G.O.P., in Georgia, North Carolina, Colorado, Utah and elsewhere."

Florida. Marc Caputo of NBC News: "Andrew Gillum, the once-rising Florida Democratic star who narrowly lost the 2018 governor's race to Ron DeSantis, was hit with a 21-count federal indictment Wednesday for wire fraud, related conspiracy charges and making false statements. Gillum, the former Tallahassee mayor, was charged along with his mentor, Sharo Lettman-Hicks, for fraudulently fundraising from 'various entities' between 2016 to 2019, according to a Department of Justice press release. The Justice Department said the two allegedly diverted some of the money to a company controlled by Lettman-Hicks, who fraudulently disguised the funds as payroll payments to Gillum." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times' story is here.

Georgia Senate Race. Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post: In an interview Tuesday, Georgia's GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker said there were 52 states in the U.S. In criticizing a remark by Democrat Stacy Abrams, he said, "If you don't believe in the country, leave and go somewhere else," he said. "If it's the worst state, why are you here? Why don't you leave ― go to another? There's, what, 51 more other states that you can go to?" MB: Frankly, that makes me like Hershel better; I'll just assume he's including Puerto Rico & the District of Columbia. Always look on the bright side.

Missouri Senate Race. Isaac Arnsdorf, et al., of the Washington Post: "A senior investigative counsel on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection is leaving the committee to explore running for Missouri's U.S. Senate seat as an independent, according to four people familiar with his plans. Joh Wood, a former federal prosecutor who has worked closely with Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), started notifying committee staff this week of his plans to explore a run for office, according to these people. Wood ran the committee's 'gold team,' which examined ... Donald Trump's possible involvement in the siege on the U.S. Capitol, and appeared alongside lawmakers on the panel last week to question witnesses during the hearing focused on the pressure campaign targeting then-Vice President Mike Pence."

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: Pete Arredondo, "the chief of the school district police force in Uvalde, Texas, was placed on administrative leave after the state's top police official faulted him for delaying the confrontation with a gunman at Robb Elementary School last month, the school district said on Wednesday.... The school district's superintendent, Hal Harrell, said in a news release that he had planned to 'wait until the investigation was complete before making personnel decisions.' But he said he ultimately made the decision to put the chief on leave because 'of the lack of clarity that remains and the unknown timing of when I will receive the results.'... A day before the school district's decision, Chief Arredondo was denied a leave of absence by the Uvalde City Council, to which he was elected shortly before the shooting. He has not appeared at public meetings since the attack and without the leave could be forced to relinquish his Council seat after three missed meetings.... As the Council signaled that it would deny Chief Arredondo's leave of absence, many in the crowd cheered and applauded."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates Thursday are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "The cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk -- Ukraine's two footholds in the eastern Luhansk region -- are the sites of 'hellish battles' against Russia, regional governor Serhiy Haidai said. Moscow's forces are gathering near a village south of Lysychansk that was captured this week, he said, in a possible attempt to cut off the remaining defenses there. Russian missile attacks continued to hit the rest of Ukraine, with strikes reported near Kharkiv in the north and Mykolaiv in the south.... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continued his marathon of phone calls with European leaders, who are gathering on Thursday and Friday to discuss Ukraine's bid for European Union candidate status.... Ukraine will also be high on the agenda when the Group of Seven, an assembly of advanced economies, meets this weekend.... Austria, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands are resurrecting old coal plants after Russia reduced natural gas shipments to several European countries." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's summary report is here.

June 22, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Jenny Vrentas of the New York Times: "As the N.F.L. was investigating his team for widespread workplace misconduct, the Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder directed a 'shadow investigation' to interfere with and undermine its findings, a Congressional committee found. At Snyder's behest, his legal team used private investigators to harass and intimidate witnesses, and created a 100-page dossier targeting victims, witnesses and journalists who had shared 'credible public accusations of harassment' against the team. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform released a 29-page memo on Wednesday that detailed the findings of its eight-month inquiry into how the Commanders and the N.F.L. handled claims of rampant sexual harassment of the team's female employees. The report came ahead of a hearing where the league's commissioner, Roger Goodell, was expected to appear and face questioning." ~~~

     ~~~ From a Washington Post liveblog: "Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, announced during a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday on the workplace of Washington's NFL team that the committee intends to issue a subpoena to compel the testimony of Commanders owner Daniel Snyder next week. Maloney's announcement came during a hearing in which NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told the committee that he did not recall the league being informed in 2009 of an allegations of sexual harassment and assault made against Snyder." Goodell testified he did not have the authority to remove Snyder. Snyder was a no-show for the hearing, what with his being on his yacht in France.

Marc Caputo of NBC News: "Andrew Gillum, the once-rising Florida Democratic star who narrowly lost the 2018 governor's race to Ron DeSantis, was hit with a 21-count federal indictment Wednesday for wire fraud, related conspiracy charges and making false statements. Gillum, the former Tallahassee mayor, was charged along with his mentor, Sharon Lettman-Hicks, for fraudulently fundraising from 'various entities' between 2016 to 2019, according to a Department of Justice press release. The Justice Department said the two allegedly diverted some of the money to a company controlled by Lettman-Hicks, who fraudulently disguised the funds as payroll payments to Gillum."

~~~~~~~~~~

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "The Senate voted 64 to 34 Tuesday evening to advance an 80-page gun safety bill to strengthen background check requirements for gun buyers under 21, provide funding to states to administer red flag laws and provide billions of dollars in new federal funding for mental health services. Fourteen Republicans voted to proceed to the bill, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who announced his support for the legislation moments before the vote." MB: the New York Times story is here. For a related story on the Uvalde, Texas, massacre (which motivated 14 GOP senators to do something) is linked below.

** Luke Broadwater & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack directly tied Donald J. Trump on Tuesday to a scheme to put forward fake slates of pro-Tump electors and presented fresh details on how the former president sought to bully, cajole and bluff his way into invalidating his 2020 defeat in states around the country. Using sworn in-person testimony from Republicans and videotaped depositions from other officials, the panel showed how the former president and a group of allies laid siege to state lawmakers and election officials after the balloting in a wide-ranging plot to reverse the outcome. The campaign led to harassment and threats of violence against anyone who resisted. The hearing on Tuesday amounted to the most comprehensive picture to date of a president who directed an attack on democracy itself and repeatedly reached into its essential machinery -- the administration of free and fair elections."

The Careless Cruelty of a Narcissist. Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Election official after election official testified to the House Jan. 6 committee on Tuesday in searing, emotional detail how Mr. Trump and his aides unleashed violent threats and vengeance on them for refusing to cave to his pressure to overturn the election in his favor. The testimony showed how Mr. Trump and his aides encouraged his followers to target election officials in key states -- even going so far as to post their personal cellphone numbers on Mr. Trump's social media channels, which the committee cited as a particularly brutal effort by the president to cling to power. 'Donald Trump did not care about the threats of violence,' said Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the vice chairwoman of the committee. 'He did not condemn them. He made no effort to stop them. He went forward with his fake allegations anyway.'" The Guardian's story is here. The AP's report is here.

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times lays out four takeaways from Tuesday's hearing: "The committee showed evidence that Mr. Trump was directly involved behind the scenes in trying to put forward the alternate slates of Trump electors that he hoped could replace the electors awarded to Mr. Biden through his victories in swing states like Arizona and Georgia....

"The committee showed examples of how Mr. Trump and his allies knew that there was no evidence that the election had been stolen.... 'He [Rudy Giuliani] said, "We've got lots of theories, we just don't have the evidence,"' [Rusty Bowers (R), the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives] recalled Mr. Giuliani telling him.... At another point, [attorney John] Eastman was pressing Mr. Bowers to embrace the plan to push a slate of Trump electors from Arizona despite the state's certification of Mr. Biden's victory there. Mr. Bowers said that he questioned how he could legally participate in the scheme and that Mr. Eastman responded by saying, 'Just do it and let the courts sort i out.'...

"The public pressure that Mr. Trump and his allies put on state election officials resulted in the officials being targeted in frightening and intimidating ways by Trump supporters....

"The committee showed that Republicans in Congress were pushing the alternate electors plan even on Jan. 6, hours before the day's violence.... According to text messages obtained by the committee, an aide to Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, told an aide for Mr. Pence on Jan. 6 that Mr. Johnson wanted to give Mr. Pence a list of Trump electors from Michigan and Wisconsin, two states won by Mr. Biden. 'Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise,' Sean Riley, an aide to Mr. Johnson, texted an aide to Mr. Pence, according to messages released by the committee. 'What is it?' Chris Hodgson, the aide to Mr. Pence, replied. 'Alternate slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn't receive them,' Mr. Riley said. 'Do not give that to him,' Mr. Hodgson texted back. A spokeswoman for Mr. Johnson, Alexa Henning, said on Twitter that he 'had no involvement in the creation of an alternate slate of electors and had no foreknowledge that it was going to be delivered to our office.'" ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Wu & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A top aide to Sen. Ron Johnson attempted to arrange a handoff of false, pro-Trump electors from the senator to Mike Pence just minutes before the then-vice president began to count electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021.... The attempted handoff shows just how much ... Donald Trump and his allies tried to lean on Pence to introduce false slates of electors that could have thrown the 2020 election from Biden to Donald Trump."

     ~~~ Marie: The video below is of crappy quality, but it's worth watching the first 40 seconds or so. Bear in mind that reporters are usually fairly deferential to senators on account of the senators' exalted status & all:

     ~~~ Marie: BTW, blaming staff for passing slates of fake electors to the Vice President, as Johnson did, is not slightly credible. ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Cohen & others of CNN post their takeaways from the hearing. Here's one: Arizona House Speaker Rusty "Bowers (R) said under oath Tuesday that Trump lied about him in a press release that came out shortly before the hearing started, where Trump claimed Bowers told him in November 2020 that he believed the election was rigged. In the statement, Trump attacked Bowers and described a call they had after the election, claiming, 'during the conversation, he told me that the election was rigged and that I won Arizona.' Trump added, 'Bowers should hope there's not a tape of the conversation.' Under questioning from [Adam] Schiff, Bowers confirmed that he 'did have a conversation with the president, but that certainly isn't it.... Anywhere, anyone anytime who has said that I said the election was rigged -- that would not be true.'"

WNBC New York: “Laura Cox, the former leader of Michigan's Republican Party, testified of a plot to have fake Republican electors hide in the state Capitol overnight so they could fulfill state law requiring electoral votes to be cast in the building. In video of her testimony from a deposition by Jan. 6 committee investigators earlier this year, Cox recalled a conversation with a man who told her he was working with Trump's re-election campaign. 'He told me that the Michigan Republican electors were planning to meet in the Capitol and hide overnight so that they could fulfill the role of casting their vote in the Michigan chambers,' Cox said. 'I told him in no uncertain terms that, that was insane and inappropriate,' Cox said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's because of stories like these -- the Stupidest Senator who still hasn't learned how to fake a phone call and Michigan party poobahs planning to spring from the bowels of the statehouse after a sleepover (not to mentioned Rudy in the Total Landscaping parking lot) -- that we tend to think of Trump's plot to overthrow the government as merely a haphazard, amateurish project that could never have succeeded. But as the committee has made clear in the course of four hearings, the plot was multifaceted, extensive, relentless and ruthless.

You can watch the hearing on this page of the committee's Website.

Philip Pump of the Washington Post: 'It was the personal stories that were the most moving part of Tuesday's hearing.... Fulton County, Ga., election worker Shaye Moss explaining how she and her mother had become afraid to use their real names or to engage with other people after being falsely accused of election fraud. Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) describing how protests at his home had unsettled his daughter in the months before she died.... 'Pressuring public servants into betraying their oath was a fundamental part of the playbook,' [committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.)] said at the outset of the hearing. 'And a handful of election officials in several key states stood between Donald Trump and the upending of American democracy.... When [officials] wouldn't embrace the 'big lie' and substitute the will of the voters with Donald Trump's will to remain in power,' Thompson said of those unlucky targets, 'Donald Trump worked to ensure they faced the consequences: threats to people's livelihood and lives, threats of violence that Donald Trump knew about and amplified.'"

The New York Times' live updates of developments related to Tuesday's January 6 committee hearing are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Oh, Lordy, There Are Tapes. Eugene Daniels & Ryan Lizza of Politico: "The House select committee investigating Jan. 6 sent a subpoena last week to Alex Holder, a documentary filmmaker who was granted extensive access to ... Donald Trump and his inner circle. Holder shot interviews with the then-president both before and after Jan. 6. The existence of this footage is previously unreported. A source familiar with the project told Politico on Monday night that Holder began filming on the campaign trail in September 2020 for a project on Trump's reelection campaign. Over the course of several months, Holder had substantial access to Trump, Trump's adult children and Mike Pence, both in the White House and on the campaign trail.... Holder is expected to fully cooperate with the committee in an interview scheduled for Thursday." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Ivanka Trump ... told a documentary film crew in the middle of December 2020 that her father should 'continue to fight until every legal remedy is exhausted' because people were questioning 'the sanctity of our elections.' The video, which was played for The New York Times by someone with access to it, was part of a trove that the filmmaker Alex Holder turned over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.... The small piece of [video] seen by The Times was striking for how it shows Ms. Trump using a different tone in describing her father's efforts to overturn the outcome than she did in the portion of her deposition to the House committee that has been made public so far. The interview for the documentary was conducted on Dec. 10, 2020, the person with access to the video said. That was nine days after a public statement by Attorney General William P. Barr, who declared at the time that there was no widespread fraud impacting the election's outcome, a rare public rebuke of [Donald] Trump's claims at the time."

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "... the evidence [the January 6 committee has] presented thus far has been far more impactful than the punditocracy predicted.... The question is no longer about Donald Trump's role in the attempted coup (there is no doubt his fingerprints are all over it); instead, the country is avidly debating whether there is sufficient evidence of Trump's corrupt intent to prosecute him for it.... A new ABC News-Ipsos poll released on Sunday found that 58 percent of Americans think Trump should be charged criminally, up about six points from a similar poll in April."

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "The democracy America has cultivated for 230 years is slipping away.... We didn't arrive at this precarious moment solely because of Trump. Trump couldn't have happened if Fox News and Republican elites hadn't normalized his threats to democratic traditions. Now they continue to do so with their breezy dismissal of the breathtaking revelations of the Jan. 6 hearings. The conservative elites surely know we are moving toward instability and violence. Yet rather than grapple with the threat, they excuse Trump's lawlessness once more by resorting to tribalism.... Trump is claiming the Jan. 6 probe is 'fake and phony' and the testimony from his former advisers 'doctored.' And Trump allies and supporters are helping him get away with it -- again. In doing so, they are effectively guaranteeing more violence."

Eric Cortellessa of Time: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will have at least one more hearing than the six originally planned, and committee members are considering holding even more hearings beyond that, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell Time.... Since the first hearing on June 9, which garnered almost 20 million viewers, the committee has accrued more information relevant to its findings. 'Every day, new stuff is coming out,' Rep. Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and a member of the panel, told TIME last week after the third hearing. The new information is a major reason why the committee has begun to consider more hearings...."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Proud Boys leaders facing seditious conspiracy charges shouldn't face a jury until early 2023 the Justice Department contended Tuesday, warning that the ongoing work of the Jan. 6 select committee had made it difficult for both sides to prepare for trial. In a court filing Tuesday evening, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough noted that the Proud Boys had been given a prominent role in the select committee's televised hearings, which described the group as crucial instigators of the riot that disrupted the transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021. But the select committee has also refused, for now, to share with the DOJ the transcripts of its 1,000 witness interviews but has indicated that it may release them publicly in the next weeks or months.... It's a significant concession for DOJ, which had initially intended to try the seditious conspiracy case in early August."

The New York Times' live updates of primary election results are here: "Katie Britt, a former chief of staff to the retiring Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, won the Republican nomination to replace her onetime boss on Tuesday, comfortably defeating a right-wing rival [Rep. Mo Brooks] in a race that puts the 40-year-old on track to become the youngest woman in the United States Senate.... In Georgia, where [Donald] Trump last month suffered his most serious political setbacks of 2022, the former president continued to rack up losses, as two congressional candidates he supported lost their runoffs on Tuesday.... In Texas, a fierce Democratic clash in the border region of Laredo was called on Tuesday nearly a month after the May 24 runoff, as Representative Henry Cuellar, a moderate, survived a second consecutive primary challenge from Jessica Cisneros, a lawyer who was once his intern. A recount by the Texas Democratic Party found Mr. Cuellar won by 289 votes."

Michael Brice-Saddler of the Washington Post: "Muriel E. Bowser (D), the pragmatic politician who has led the District for eight years, won the Democratic mayoral nomination Tuesday, according to projections from the Associated Press, beating out two left-leaning members of the council on her path to becoming just the second three-term mayor in D.C.'s history."

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Lydia DePillis of the New York Times: "President Biden plans to call on Congress on Wednesday to temporarily suspend the federal gas tax, an effort to dampen the soaring fuel prices that have stoked frustration across the United States. During a speech on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Biden will ask Congress to lift the federal taxes -- about 18 cents per gallon of gasoline and 24 cents per gallon of diesel -- through the end of September, just before the fall midterm elections, according to senior officials speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the announcement on Tuesday night. The president will also ask states to suspend their own gas taxes, hoping to alleviate the economic pain that has contributed to the president's diminishing popularity." The AP's story is here.

Michael Crowley & John Ismay of the New York Times: "The United States on Tuesday limited its military's use of land mines worldwide, except for on the Korean Peninsula, meeting President Biden's campaign pledge to undo a Trump-era policy that he had called 'reckless.' The move effectively returns to a 2014 policy established by the Obama administration that forbade the use of antipersonnel land mines except in defense of South Korea. The Trump administration loosened those restrictions in 2020, citing a new focus on strategic competition with major powers with large armies. Human rights groups have long condemned antipersonnel land mines -- small explosive weapons that typically detonate after an unsuspecting victim steps on them -- as a leading cause of preventable civilian casualties. Land mines kill thousands of people per year, many of them children, often long after conflicts have ended...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump was such a horrible president* and did so many horrible things, that I forgot he had stepped the killing of children around the world.

Christina Jewett & Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration is planning to require tobacco companies to slash the amount of nicotine in traditional cigarettes to make them less addictive and reduce the toll of smoking that claims 480,000 lives each year. The proposal, which could take years to go into effect, would put the United States at the forefront of global antismoking efforts. Only one other nation, New Zealand, has advanced such a plan. The headwinds are fierce. Tobacco companies have already indicated that any plan with significant reductions in nicotine would violate the law. And some conservative lawmakers might consider such a policy another example of government overreach, ammunition that could spill over into the midterm elections."

Deborah Solomon of the New York Times: "Millions of 2021 taxpayer returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service have yet to be completed, and the agency is facing a larger-than-normal backlog at this point in the tax season, the Treasury Department said on Tuesday. More than twice as many tax returns await processing 'compared to historical norms at this point in the calendar year,' according to a letter sent to lawmakers by top Treasury and I.R.S. officials. Most of the backlog relates to paper returns, which take longer to process than those filed electronically. The I.R.S. began this tax season with eight million unprocessed tax returns from the previous year.... Treasury and I.R.S. officials have blamed the initial backlog on severe resource challenges after Republican lawmakers gutted the agency's budget in recent years. Staffing shortages and antiquated technology have eroded many of its abilities, a situation that worsened in the wake of the pandemic, when the I.R.S. became the primary conduit for sending stimulus payments to households." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A week ago the IRS sent me a refund (and it was huge, by my standards) for ... 2019. And my accountant filed it electronically. So, yeah, the IRS is a little behind. (BTW, the feds paid me quite a bit in interest.)

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The Air Force has detained a U.S. service member in connection with an attack in April at a small American military base in northeastern Syria that wounded four U.S. troops, the service said on Tuesday. An airman was taken into custody at an undisclosed location in the United States on Thursday in relation to the attack on the Green Village base in Syria, Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman, said in a statement. The airman, having completed a tour of duty in Syria, had returned home, she said.... The Air Force did not identify the airman or provide any details about the incident, but two U.S. military officials said the airman is an explosives expert. Ms. Stefanek said that the airman had not been charged, adding that 'it is too early in the process' to do so, and that the military would release more information if charges were filed." CNN's story is here.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Maine may not exclude religious schools from a state tuition program. The decision, from a court that has grown exceptionally receptive to claims from religious people and groups in a variety of settings, was the latest in a series of rulings requiring the government to aid religious institutions on the same terms as other private organizations. The vote was 6 to 3, with the court's three liberal justices in dissent." MB: When Texas secedes, could we please donate 2/3rds of the Supreme Court to them. And you know which 2/3rds I'm talkin' about. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: I see where contributor Jeanne, in yesterday's Comments, had the related idea of sending Trump & Greitens to rule over Texas as prez & veep. I second that. ~~~

     ~~~ So Long, Establishment Clause. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "The liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor has warned that the US supreme court is dismantling the wall between church and state, after the conservative majority ruled that the state of Maine cannot exclude religious schools from a tuition programme. In a dissent to the ruling in Carson v Makin, released on Tuesday, Sotomayor wrote: 'This court continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the framers fought to build.... In just a few years, the court has upended constitutional doctrine, shifting from a rule that permits states to decline to fund religious organisations to one that requires states in many circumstances to subsidise religious indoctrination with taxpayer dollars.'" See also Akhilleus' commentary below. He didn't have to read Sotomayor's dissent to figure out what the Supremes were up to.

Graham Bowley, et al., of the New York Times: "A jury on Tuesday found that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted Judy Huth in 1975, when as a 16-year-old girl she accepted his invitation to join him at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.... As part of its decision, the jury awarded Ms. Huth $500,000 in compensatory damages, but declined to award punitive damages."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "President Biden on Tuesday marked what White House officials have cast as the unofficial beginning of the U.S. vaccination campaign for children younger than 5, visiting a site in Washington, D.C., to meet with families and children as some shots were administered. 'Finally, some peace of mind,' Mr. Biden said at the White House after the event in remarks celebrating the availability of shots, calling it a 'monumental step forward' in the nation's pandemic response. Federal health officials, eager to showcase the progress the United States has made in fending off deadly cases of the coronavirus, have worked for weeks to prepare parents and doctors for immunizing the youngest children, a population of around 20 million that has waited 18 months after adults first became eligible for the shots."

Beyond the Beltway

South Dakota. Stephen Groves of the AP: "The South Dakota Senate on Tuesday convicted Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg of two impeachment charges stemming from a 2020 fatal crash, removing and barring him from future office in a stinging rebuke that showed most senators didn't believe his account of the crash. Ravnsborg, a first-term Republican who only recently announced he wouldn't seek reelection, showed little emotion as senators convicted him first of committing a crime that caused someone's death. They then delivered another guilty verdict on a malfeasance charge that alleged he misled investigators and misused his office. Ravnsborg told a 911 dispatcher the night of the crash that he might have struck a deer or other large animal and has said he didn't know he struck a man -- 55-year-old Joseph Boever -- until he returned to the scene the next morning. Criminal investigators said they didn't believe some of Ravnsborg's statements, and several senators made clear they didn't either."

The officers had weapons; the children had none. The officers had body armor; the children had none. The officers had training; the subject had none. One hour, 14 minutes and 8 seconds. That's how long children waited, and the teachers waited, in Room 111 to be rescued. -- Texas Public Safety director Steven McCraw, Tuesday ~~~

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "The head of the Texas State Police offered a pointed and emphatic rebuke of the police response to a shooting last month at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, calling it 'an abject failure' that ran counter to decades of training. In his comments before a special State Senate committee in Austin, Steven McCraw, the director of the Department of Public Safety, said that just minutes after a gunman began shooting children inside a pair of connected classrooms on May 24, the police at the scene had enough firepower and protective equipment to storm the classroom. But, he said, the on-scene commander 'decided to put the lives of officers ahead of the lives of children.' Mr. McCraw, speaking forcefully, said the same commander had delayed confronting the gunman because he 'waited for a key that was never needed.... 'I don't believe, based on the information that we have right now, that that door was ever secured.'..." The Texas Tribune report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Travis Caldwell & Amy Simonson of CNN: At a city council meeting Tuesday, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin accused Steven McCraw of "lying leaking and misleading [the public] ... 'in order to distance his own troopers and Rangers from the response.'... Meanwhile, the mayor on Tuesday slammed leaks from unnamed DPS sources in the week following the shooting that were critical of local or school district law enforcement, including reports that they were not cooperating with investigators. 'Col. McCraw has an agenda, and it's not to present a full report and to give factual answers to the families of this community,' he said.... At the Uvalde meeting Tuesday night, [Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo, who was recently sworn in as a council member] was unanimously denied by fellow council members a leave of absence from future meetings." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Although it isn't crystal-clear from the CNN report, apparently Arredondo didn't show up for Tuesday's meeting. Arredondo missed at least one earlier meeting. When I was a borough council member a long time ago, local ordinance allowed the council to kick out a member who didn't appear at three consecutive meetings, as I recall. It sounds as if Uvalde may have a similar ordinance & they're prepared to act on it. ~~~

     ~~~ MEANWHILE, Amir Vera of CNN reports that at a Monday evening school board meeting, parents & residents demanded that Arredondo be fired as chief. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Way back on May 25, the day after the massacre, when very little about the shooting was publicly known, and local authorities, Gov. Abbott & Director McCraw were praising the "immediate" police response, I wrote in the Comments section, "... based on the little I know -- it seems to me that better policing might have prevented this carnage." I guess that was right.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates Wednesday are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here: "The fate of the eastern Luhansk region hangs in the balance as Russian forces intensify efforts to seize war-torn Severodonetsk and threaten its twin city of Lysychansk across the Seversky Donets river.... U.S.-based analysts say the advance is a 'clear setback' for Ukraine. Ahead of a European Commission summit this Thursday and Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is conducting a marathon session of calls with leaders across the continent to maximize his country's chance of being granted European Union candidate status.... Zelensky also called for tougher Western sanctions in response to Russia’s threat to retaliate against Lithuania for enforcing E.U. sanctions, as well as its control of Ukrainian grain and energy exports. So far, Russia has withstood Western pressure better than expected.... Press group Reporters without Borders says Russian forces appear to have executed a Ukrainian photojournalist and a soldier who accompanied him in a forest near Kyiv in March[.]... The White House said Moscow's suggestion that two Americans captured by Russian forces in Ukraine could face the death penalty was 'totally appalling.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The AP's story on Russia's executions of photojournalist Maks Levin and serviceman Oleksiy Chernyshov is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's summary report of Tuesday's developments is here.

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said during a surprise trip to Ukraine on Tuesday that a veteran prosecutor known for investigating former Nazis [-- Eli Rosenbaum --] would lead American efforts in tracking Russian war criminals. Mr. Garland's visit, part of scheduled stops in Poland and Paris this week, was intended to bolster U.S. and international support in helping Ukraine identify, apprehend and prosecute Russians involved in war crimes and other atrocities.... Mr. Garland met for an hour with Ukraine's prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, in the village of Krakovets, about a mile from the border with Poland, to discuss the technical, forensic and legal support that the United States could provide, department officials said." A CNN story is here. MB: Presumably Garland, a former chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court, can multi-task. We have our own chief war criminal here at home who needs some prosecuting.

U.K. William Booth of the Washington Post: "As tens of thousands of train workers went on strike Tuesday in the biggest such action in three decades, the British commute turned into a slog for millions of people. With trains idled across England, Scotland and Wales, travelers packed the highways, sought out scarce taxis and looked for buses. A lot of Britons took to rental bicycles. With 80 percent of trains canceled and 40,000 workers out on strike, some lines were completely shut down, and usually bustling central stations were nearly empty. The London Underground -- also known as 'the Tube' -- was also mostly closed because of another strike."

News Lede

AP: &"A powerful earthquake struck a rural, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing 1,000 people and injuring 1,500 more, according to a state-run news agency. Officials warned that the already grim toll would likely rise. Information remained scarce on the magnitude 6.1 temblor near the Pakistani border, but quakes of that strength can cause severe damage in an area where homes and other buildings are poorly constructed and landslides are common. Experts put the depth at just 10 kilometers (6 miles) -- another factor that could increase the impact."